Evergreen International gets preliminary approval for cargo route to China

Evergreen International Airlines Inc. enlisted big guns, ranging from members of Congress to a former Bush administration Cabinet member, to support its bid for new U.S.-China cargo flights.

Apparently the references didn't hurt. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Transportation gave the McMinnville-based airline preliminary approval to operate on the new route. Officials expect to make a final decision next month after taking more comments concerning the hotly contested service.

Evergreen plans to acquire two Boeing 747-400F freighters to operate six round-trip flights a week to Shanghai from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, with stops in Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth and Columbus, Ohio.

"This gives us a long-term commitment," said Brian Bauer, Evergreen International Airlines president. "It enables us to build more for the future as well."

The airline plans to carry about 800,000 pounds of cargo a week out of China starting March 29. Unlike competitors that pick up cargo in South Korea and elsewhere, Evergreen freighters will fly directly to the United States, departing and arriving on the same day as they cross the international dateline.

At least two dozen members of Congress, and former U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, wrote current Secretary Mary Peters in support of Evergreen's application. Mineta, now a partner at the Hill & Knowlton public relations firm, described Evergreen's proposal as "realistic" while the airline industry grapples with declining traffic and stratospheric fuel prices.

"Major carriers have been forced to pare back services, park or dispose of aircraft, and to delay new services in limited-entry markets," Mineta wrote. "Risky proposals to serve markets that others have recently tried to serve and are planning to leave, or to divert the applicant's own traffic from its established routes, simply make no sense in today's economic environment."

Two other companies, Kalitta Air of Michigan and TradeWinds Airlines of North Carolina, competed vigorously with Evergreen for the U.S.-China route.

Department officials said they chose Evergreen because it could best compete with other U.S.-China cargo airlines, which include Federal Express, Northwest Airlines, Polar Air Cargo, United Parcel Service and China Cargo Airlines. The department also cited Evergreen's U.S.-Asia experience, including existing charter flights to and from China.

Bill Mosley, a Transportation Department spokesman, said the agency issued a so-called show-cause order in Evergreen's favor Tuesday. "In a great majority of cases, show-cause orders become final," Mosley said, "although it's not unprecedented to reverse one."

Bauer declined to disclose the amount of revenue the flights will generate. In letters to Secretary Peters, members of Congress said the new service would increase economic activity by $27 million a year, generating new jobs. Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., wrote that Nike and Intel would benefit from the U.S.-Shanghai connection.

Evergreen already operates charter flights between the United States and Shanghai three times a week, according to the company's application. But charter flights are limited under a U.S.-China agreement.

As of last May, Evergreen also operated as many as five scheduled Boeing 747 cargo flights between Hong Kong and Columbus each week, stopping twice a week in Nagoya, Japan.

Shanghai is mainland China's largest cargo hub, according to Evergreen, with nearly twice as much freight as Beijing and almost four times as much as Guangzhou.
Richard Read: richread@aol.com